A Chicken Named Naughty Picks The Books

My original title for this post was going to be “Naughty Picks”. Then I realized that would not be a family friendly sounding title. My little chickie Naughty is on my shoulder while I am picking out the books for this post and she really seemed interested in the selection. She can’t take her eyes off the screen. So here are Naughty’s freebies.

When a mysterious man named Matthew appears in the small Iowa town of Lost Nation, his sudden arrival raises questions about his past. Quiet with an apparent taste for rum, Matthew makes it clear he doesn’t want to make friends. He isn’t too pleased to be dropped off at Home Farm where the independent and eccentric Francesca doesn’t accept bad manners or booze binges.

Matthew doesn’t want to form personal ties and intends to move on as soon as his damaged leg from a recent plane crash heals. But a series of events draw him into reluctant relationships: One with the feisty Francesca, the second with her 10-year-old granddaughter Sarah.

In spite of her own reservations, Francesca finds herself falling for this brooding pilot but his past looms between the pair and what neither knows is that Sarah, Francesca’s 10-year-old granddaughter, has encountered a stranger of her own … leading to a climatic confrontation that will put her and her grandmother’s life in danger.

Selena’s life isn’t turning out to be the fairy tale she imagined as a kid.

That hope seemed to vanish long ago when her dad kicked her and her mom out of the house. This summer might finally hold the chance of a new beginning for Selena … but having to live with her snobby cousin in Lake Lure, NC while waiting for her mom to get out of rehab wasn’t how Selena was planning on spending her summer. She soon begins to wonder why she committed to give up her “bad habits” for this.

Things don’t seem too bad, though. Especially when Selena gains the attention of the cute neighbor next door. But when her best friend back home in Brooklyn desperately needs her, a secret that’s been hidden from Selena for years is revealed, and when she becomes a target for one of her cousin’s nasty pranks, she finds herself having to face the scars from her past and the memories that come along with them. Will she follow her mom’s example in running away, or trust that God still has a fairy tale life written just for her?

Constantine Paleologos does things grudgingly. As a descendant of Byzantine royalty he dutifully returns to Istanbul, the city his family lost centuries before.He is then set on a life-altering course against Satanists, Templars and Dark Nobility to kidnap the Antichrist. Each faction wants to raise the Beast but only Constantine wants to give him the freedom to choose his own destiny.

Mad Gods is the most high-stakes “nature vs nurture” experiment in history. An occult thriller of one man against the End of the World.

In the late spring of 2008, suddenly devoid of my job, my long-term girlfriend, and quite possibly my faith in humanity, I took to the road as a form of self-prescribed therapy.

Equipped only with what I could fit in the back of my small SUV, I made my way across 3,800 miles of the beautiful West and Pacific Northwest, sleeping mostly in my truck, fly fishing, and communing with both nature and locals alike. My trials along the way ranged from such trivial things as cavorting with small-town girls or figuring out where my next shower would come from, to the much more profound issues of dealing with lost love and coming to terms with the fact that sooner or later, like it or not, I was going to have to “grow up.”

This memoir is a recount of my search for the sort of elusive guidance that can only be found in clear high mountain trout streams and at the bottom of craft beers in smoky dive bars.

In the wasteland of Britain in the year 500, a cranky Merlin tutors a teenage Arthur. Missing the comfort of the Realm of Dragons, Merlin amuses himself with two simultaneous sneaky marriages to the feuding witches, Nimm and Mother Hubbard. With the help of young Parsifal, they all begin the search for the holy grail, their town’s communal cauldron, which was stolen by a Pict witch to make a demon bell. Recovering the cauldron will end the drought in time for Arthur to be King. Along the way they meet a host of colorful characters and face obstacles of a most phenomenal nature. Classic Peter Joseph Swanson… wickedly bawdy. Followed by the thrilling sequel The Werewolf of Camelot.